Douglas Johnson

Douglas Johnson received his BA from Washington University in St. Louis, and his MA and PhD from Johns Hopkins University. As a scholar, he studies human cognition, with an emphasis on attention, memory, and the development of expertise. He has published in a variety of professional journals, including Psychological Science, Memory and Cognition, Neuropsychopharmacology, Psychopharmacology, and The Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance.

Prof. Johnson joined Colgate’s Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences in 1996. Within the department, he teaches a variety of courses, including Introduction to Psychology, Human Cognition, Research Methods, Statistics, and Attention and Memory. Within Colgate's Core Curriculum, he has taught two Core Sciences courses (one on the malleability of human memory, and another on the psychology of sport and exercise). He has won numerous teaching awards at Colgate, including the Jerome Balmuth Award for Teaching, the Colgate Alumni Corporation Distinguished Teaching Award, and the Phi Eta Sigma “Professor of the Year”.

Professor Johnson has served a variety of administrative roles at Colgate. In addition to considerable committee work, he has served as associate dean of faculty (2007-2010; 2019-2023), chair of the scientific perspectives program (2004-2007), and director of the Center for Learning, Teaching, and Research (2014-2017).  As of July 1, 2023 he serves as Colgate's inaugural Dean of Academic and Curricular Affairs.

Students performing senior research with Professor Johnson have gone on to careers in business, medicine, and law, as well as graduate school in psychology and neuroscience (including Princeton, UVA, and Cornell).

Professor Johnson is married to Mary (Molly) Treadway Johnson, PhD, JD, and they have two children, Daniel and Sarah.